Vladimir Anikeyev

Vladimir Fedorovich Anikeyev (Владимир Федорович Аникеев) is the former ringleader of the anonymous group Shaltai Boltai. He was detained in Russia in November 2016, and was later sentenced to two years in prison for unlawful access to computer information.

Vladimir Fedorovich Anikeyev
Владимир Федорович Аникеев
BornJune 26, 1974
Makhachkala
NationalityRussian
Other namesLewis
CitizenshipRussian
Known forShaltai Boltai
Conviction(s)Unlawful access to computer information
Criminal chargeUnlawful access to computer information
Penalty2 years in prison

Early career

Anikeyev worked in the St. Petersburg media during the 1990s. He wasn't regarded as a great writer, but he was able to acquire many contacts in the Russian government.[1]

At a party in Russia around 2004, Anikeyev had reportedly met Alexander Glazastikov and Konstantin Teplyakov, two future members of Shaltai Boltai.

In 2013, Anikeyev proposed the idea of occasionally publishing political materials that might be of interest to the public. Glazastikov concurred. The two would later discuss who would be called Shaltai and who would be called Boltai when communicating with reporters.[2]

Shaltai Boltai

At the end of 2013, Shaltai Boltai gained instant fame in Russia when a leaked transcript of the speech that Vladimir Putin was planning to give on New Year's Eve was published on their blog.[3]

The following year, communications from high-profile figures like Arkady Dvorkovich and Yevgeny Prigozhin were published, culminating in the Shaltai Boltai blog being blocked by Russia authorities.[4]

In the summer of 2014, Anikeyev was reportedly approached by an intermediary of a potential client who was interested in acquiring the identities of members of Shaltai Boltai.[5]

By early 2016, due to concerns that Russian intelligence services would soon be able to identify Anikeyev's source network, operations at Shaltai Boltai were reportedly halted.[6]

FSB influence

Teplyakov claims that Anikeyev was recruited by the FSB in August 2015.[7]

Other reports say Anikeyev's cooperation with the FSB, specifically Sergei Mikhailov (FSB) and Dmitry Dokuchaev, began sometime in 2016.[8][9][10][11]

Anikeyev himself has denied these reports.[12]

Arrest

In October 2016, Anikeyev was reportedly lured away from Kyiv and towards the border of Belarus, where he was detained and then transported to Russia.[13][14][15][16]

In January 2017, Anikeyev pleaded guilty to unlawful access to computer information.[17]

His arrest was first announced on January 28, 2017.[18]

Conviction

In July 2017, Anikeyev was sentenced to two years in prison.[19][20]

He was released in August 2018.[21][22]

References
  1. "Shaltai Boltai: What we learned over the past week about the members of a hacker group". Meduza. February 9, 2017. Archived from the original on June 19, 2020. Anikeev was born in Makhachkala. In the 1990s, he worked in the St. Petersburg media. A Rosbalt source pointed out that Anikeev "didn’t know how to write at all, but was a born scout, could drink with someone, have novels with secretaries, and gradually he got a circle of contacts in various departments." In the early 2000s, Anikeev began to incriminate businessmen and officials. At the same time, he began to find personal mailboxes of "objects" and handed them over to hackers. All work was done using phishing. The source of Rosbalt indicated that Anikeev soon began to visit Moscow. "He became a member of the presidential administration."
  2. Sobchak, Ksenia; Badanin, Roman (February 9, 2017). "Co-founder of Humpty Dumpty - Sobchak: "The FSB promised to guarantee us security"". Dozhd. Archived from the original on June 17, 2020. There existed, at least until the last, two main participants in this project, but between us inside, which of us is Shaltai and who is Boltai, we didn’t have this. That is, to communicate with reporters, we could introduce ourselves as "Shaltai Boltai", "Boltai," or "Shaltai." [...] I met Anikeev and Teplyakov at some parties... [...] It's hard to remember now, around 2004. [...] At the end of 2013, we talked with Vladimir Anikeev on various political topics. [...] Accordingly, he initially had some sources, quoting which he made me understand that he had some insider information on some various issues. And in the process of our communication, he proposed to create a kind of project that will include a blog, twitter, and from time to time publish something interesting there to make it interesting to the general public.
  3. Seddon, Max (June 29, 2014). "Down The Rabbit Hole With Russia's Mysterious Leakers". BuzzFeed. Archived from the original on June 18, 2020. Things changed later that month, when one of the group's "informants" supplied them with the text of Putin's annual New Year's speech before he had made it. They created the Shaltai Boltai blog and published it before it went on air.
  4. Kolomychenko, Maria; Rozhkov, Roman (July 23, 2014). "Humpty Dumpty promises to resist". Kommersant. Archived from the original on September 23, 2014. The Humpty Dumpty anonymous blog , the authors of which publish a correspondence allegedly owned by Russian officials and politicians, is today in the roster of banned sites maintained by Roskomnadzor. [...] The order of Roskomnadzor regarding this blog, the authors of which call themselves the Anonymous International group, appeared a few days after they published openly available emails from a gmail mailbox, allegedly belonging to Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich. [...] "According to our data this happened with the filing of lawyers from Concord." [...] Concord Food Factory is a catering company owned by Evgeny and Violetta Prigozhin through their parent companies. One of her clients is the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation. Anonymous International since May of this year began to lay out a series of letters from various officials who lobby for the interests of Concord.
  5. Turovsky, Daniil (Jan 13, 2015). "Humpty Dumpty is a by-product of other games". Meduza. Archived from the original on July 7, 2016. "We know they're looking for us," Lewis says. Since May, one general has been working for us, first the Ministry of Internal Affairs worked, then the FSB and FSO. We have a dozen Prokopenko messages in which this general reports that right now, we are close, almost got close, yeah. In the summer, through intermediaries, people came to us who asked to hack the accounts of Anonymous International, of course, not knowing that we were they. And the main goal was not hacking, but subsequent identification of the participants. We broke the price tag of 100 thousand dollars. And they refused. Although I do not really understand this, because the price is not so high.
  6. Zubov, Gennady; Vetrov, Igor (January 31, 2017). "Arrested FSB officers accused of collaborating with the CIA". Novaya Gazeta. Archived from the original on June 20, 2020. “The hackers who posted the correspondence on the Humpty's website understood that sooner or later they would be able to figure them out, and by the beginning of 2016 they had actually stopped their activities.
  7. Alekhina, Margarita (January 9, 2019). "Hacker from Humpty Dumpty Cooperated with FSB". Archived from the original on February 1, 2019. The connection with the FSB was held by [the head of Anonymous International, Vladimir] Anikeev. He regularly went to consultations, for some statements to Moscow or St. Petersburg," Teplyakov said, adding that members of the group spent time mainly abroad. [...] He claims that the leader of the group did not disclose to accomplices with whom he had contacts. "Anikeev took upon himself the risks associated with communicating with the outside world, representatives of the authorities and special services, this was part of his work. Since August 2015, he worked closely with the FSB," Teplyakov said. "There was evidence for this, he brought instructions for work, the requirements to start some business, some to stop. These were verbal recommendations.
  8. Seddon, Max (February 6, 2017). "Hacker reveals dark arts of Russian blackmail and spies". Financial Times. Archived from the original on February 7, 2017. Things changed in early 2016, Alexander said, when Mr Anikeev told him the group had acquired unnamed handlers in Russian intelligence who had asked for a publishing veto.
  9. "Hackers get burned in deal with Russian spy agency". Associated Press. February 9, 2017. Archived from the original on June 15, 2017. Glazastikov said Anikeyev, the hacking group’s leader, had told him the FSB contacted him via proxies to give a message: “Guys, we know all about you. We won’t arrest you, but we would like to know what you are doing.”
  10. Rosenberg, Steve (February 10, 2017). "Russia's 'Humpty Dumpty' hackers: What were they trying to do?". BBC. Archived from the original on June 15, 2020. From the beginning, the project was independent. But in the middle of last year Mr Anikeev informed me that a high-level official from the FSB had come to him - a handler or a middle man," Alexander says. "He'd said: 'Guys, we already have information about you and your project. But we want to cooperate. So we will cover you - for your security. We will have the right of veto. Inform us the day before you publish anything. Maybe, we will ask you to publish something.'
  11. Harding, Luke (November 16, 2017). Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win. Vintage Books. ISBN 978-0525562511. With or without Mikhailov's help, it was clear that by Autumn 2016 Shaltai-Boltai had overreached itself. [...] In May Anikeev was persuaded to return to Moscow to meet with an FSB official.
  12. Alekhina, Margarita; Balashova, Anna (December 17, 2018). ""Humpty Dumpty Leader: "Look where I am, and where is the secret knowledge"". RBC. Archived from the original on June 18, 2020. When I started reading all this, I realized that journalists needed to write fantastic novels. I was taken in early November, [Mikhailov and Dokuchaev] were taken, as I know from the newspapers, sometime in December, and this became known at the same time at the end of January. In the end, they tied us up. At some point, Filinov [Alexander Filinov, arrested in the "Shaltai Boltai case"] was taken to court, he had an appeal for arrest, and at the same time they learned about the case and started to tie everything up. But two weeks later it was resolved, and reasonable people finally realized that these were completely different things. I found out about these people while in Lefortovo. Before that I had not even heard of them.
  13. Gerden, Eugene (February 15, 2017). "Russian special services deny involvement in Shaltay Boltay case". SC Magazine. Archived from the original on June 15, 2017. In November last year, the Lefortovo court of Moscow sanctioned the arrest of the alleged leader of the hacker group, Vladimir Anikeev, and two possible accomplices, Alexander Filinov and Constantine Teplyakov.
  14. Pigman, Lincoln (July 6, 2017). "Hacker Who Aided Russian Intelligence Is Sentenced to 2 Years". The New York Times. Archived from the original on June 17, 2020. The security service detained Mr. Anikeyev after luring him to Russia from Ukraine, where he had lived for several years, with the promise of payment for a hacking operation.
  15. Schwartz, George (September 7, 2017). "Russia Sentences Two 'Humpty Dumpty' Hackers". Archived from the original on June 17, 2020. After initially entering a not-guilty plea, Filinov and Teplyakov pleaded guilty to some of the charges against them, according to news reports. [...] Testimony against the two men was provided by Russian citizen Vladimir Anikeev, aka "Lewis," who admitted in court to being the leader of Shaltay-Boltai, which is sometimes spelled Shaltay-Boltay. In October 2016, Anikeev was lured from his home in Kyiv, Ukraine, to Russia, where he was arrested by the FSB.
  16. Harding, Luke (November 16, 2017). Collusion: Secret Meetings, Dirty Money, and How Russia Helped Donald Trump Win. Vintage Books. ISBN 978-0525562511. In May Anikeev was persuaded to return to Moscow to meet with an FSB official. In November he came back again and was arrested.
  17. Shaikh, Rafia (February 8, 2017). "Russia Detains 9 Hackers for Alleged Involvement in $17 Million Banking Theft Plot". Wccftech. Archived from the original on June 17, 2017. Wednesday's news comes days after journalist Vladimir Anikeev, known as the creator of the hacker group Anonymous International and the website Shaltay-Boltay, pleaded guilty to unauthorized access to computer information.
  18. Alexandrov, German (January 28, 2017). "The leader of Humpty Dumpty was arrested by the FSB". Rosbalt. Archived from the original on January 28, 2017. The creator of the Humpty Dumpty website, which housed the correspondence of officials, journalist Vladimir Anikeev, better known in certain circles as Lewis, was detained upon arrival from Ukraine, where he was supposedly posted on the local website of the correspondence of Russian Presidential Aide Vladislav Surkov.
  19. "Russian 'Humpty Dumpty' hacker Anikeev jailed for two years". BBC. July 6, 2017. Archived from the original on June 15, 2020. The leader of a Russian hacking group that targeted the emails of high-profile Kremlin figures has been given two years in prison by a Moscow court. Vladimir Anikeev's group "Shaltai Boltai" (Humpty Dumpty) was notorious for hacks including the Twitter account of Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev. He was tried amid tight secrecy and convicted of unauthorised access to computer information.
  20. Hodge, Nathan (July 6, 2017). "Russian Hacker Sentenced to Two Years in Prison". The Wall Street Journal. Archived from the original on June 15, 2020. A Moscow court on Thursday sentenced to two years in prison the alleged ringleader of a hacking group that rattled Russia’s political establishment, Russia’s official court-reporting agency said. The sentencing of Vladimir Anikeev by the Moscow City Court followed his conviction for "unlawful access to computer information" as part of a larger conspiracy case, said the agency, RAPSI.
  21. "The leader of the Humpty Dumpty hacker group was released after recounting the sentence". Interfax. August 6, 2018. Archived from the original on June 17, 2020. The leader of the Humpty Dumpty hacker group Vladimir Anikeev, convicted of unlawful access to computer information, was released, his lawyer Ruslan Koblev told Interfax on Monday.
  22. "Russian hacker who once tormented state officials says he's starting his own cybersecurity consultancy". Meduza. December 14, 2018. Archived from the original on June 15, 2020. Anikeev went free from prison in August 2018 after serving two years for the felony crime of unauthorized data access. He spent less than two years behind bars thanks to Russia's new incarceration rules that weigh days spent in pretrial detention as 1.5 days in a standard prison.
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